The use of the Internet became popular. As the role of the Internet has been varied, variety of apparatuses for access to the Internet becomes more diverse. Conventionally, a computer system having a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) with a display area of about 12 to 20 inches, a liquid crystal display or a plasma display device has been used as an apparatus for connection to the Internet.
However, while taking into account cases wherein portability is important, there has been a dramatic spread in the integration of handy telephones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and i-mode handy phones. These apparatuses are generally having small display area. Further, since visually impaired persons cannot confirm the output of computers by observing display devices, the reading software, such as speech browsers, has been developed. It is anticipated that such reading software will eventually constitute a human interface improvement, not only for visually impaired persons but also for users who are unfamiliar with computers. Then, this kind of software technique can contribute to and promote the wider use of computer systems. In addition, for wearable computers, since the areas of their display devices should perforce be small, it is predicted that speech output will be a primary or, at the least, an auxiliary output means.
In general, the designs of page layouts for web sites are based on the assumption that the display devices of computer systems will have 12 to 20 inch display areas. Furthermore, for the output to display devices, it is premised that displays will be used by persons with normal sight. Specifically, the menu area (link information is embedded there) of a site and an advertisement banner are ordinarily arranged at the upper or left portion of a display area, and the two-dimensional layout of the data is presented, so that it can be easily viewed by users with normal sight. The information inherent to a page commonly tends to be arranged in the center or in the latter half of a page layout.
When a web page, designed for users with normal sight, or a large screen device, is to be displayed on a PDA or a portable telephone, or is to be output by a speech browser, usually the information (frame information, an advertisement, etc.) at the first of a page tends to be an obstacle. The two-dimensional information, such as frame information or advertisements, is effective and improves the usability for users with normal sight and a large screen. However, for users who operate small screen devices or employ speech browsers, these secondary information becomes an obstacle to find the most important information, such as the inherent information of the page. Therefore, when a device having a small screen or a speech browser is employed to output a page file designed for a large screen, we have to provide some method for accessing to important information easily.
Therefore, when a device having a small screen or a speech browser is employed to output a page file designed for a large screen, some means is required for rapidly accessing the initially sought information. One well-known means is a method that provides annotations for a page file. Annotation is an additional data, such as the structure of a page file and the importance level of each portion. Usually, the annotation is written to an external file, and is used to simplify page file accurately.
However, it is not easy to provide annotations for each page file. Generally, while each page file is browsed and the display-is conformed, the importance level of the page file should be determined and annotations should be provided. These operations need be performed manually. Especially at a news site or a database site, the annotator's workload to prepare annotations is significantly increased because the volume of available page files is large. In addition, when a new file is to be generated by including date data in the URL (Uniform Resource Locator), even if annotations have already been provided to the site, additional annotations should be prepared.